A browser application such as Mozilla Firefox™, Google Chrome™, Yandex™, and the like can be used to access information via various kinds of global or local communications networks (the Internet, the World Wide Web, local area networks and the like). The available information includes a variety of content types, such as photos, video, audio and the like, and relates to a wide range of topics, such as but not limited to news, weather, traffic, entertainment, finance and the like. The information is accessed using a wide range of electronic devices such as desktop computers, laptop computers, smartphones, tablets and the like.
FIG. 13 shows a typical browser window 1104 generated in a known browser application 1102, Mozilla Firefox™ in the illustrated example. The browser window 1104 has a command interface 1106 and a content display space 1108. The browser window 1104 also includes a command menu panel 1112 including several command buttons such as “FILE”, “EDIT” “VIEW”, “HISTORY”, “BOOKMARKS”, “TOOLS”, “HELP”, and the like. The browser window 1104 includes a window control panel 1111 having buttons for maximizing, minimizing and closing the browser window 1104. A navigation control panel 1114 includes a back button 1116, a forward button 1118, a refresh button 1120, stop loading button 1122, and a home button 1124.
The content of a web resource being currently accessed by the browser application 1102 is displayed in the content display space 1108 while the command interface 1106 displays the address of the accessed web resource. A user can navigate to a different web resource either by typing the address (Universal Resource Locator or URL) of the desired web resource in the command interface 1106, by selecting a previously stored bookmark, or by clicking on a hyperlink included in the content displayed in the content display space 1108.
A user typically likes to maintain access to multiple web resources (web pages) simultaneously. Tabbed browsing is provided in most browser applications to facilitate multiple web pages being open simultaneously, and to allow a user to switch between viewing any one of the multiple open web pages.
A tab panel 1130 includes a new tab button 1132 and several tabs 1136. Each tab 1136 is associated with a corresponding web resource. Each tab 1136 has a cross at the right end thereof which can be clicked on to close the tab 1136, and the web resource associated therewith. The new tab button 1132 can be clicked to open a new tab, which is typically placed on a right side of the rightmost tab 1136 in the tab panel 1130. When a user clicks on any one of the tabs 1136, the tab become activated, i.e. the tab 1136 become a currently activated tab 1138 and the content display space 1108 displays the content of the display space 1140 associated with the currently activated tab 1138.
The user can choose to have a desired web resource be displayed in the display space 1140 associated with the currently activated tab 1138 (either by entering the address in the command interface 1106, or by clicking on a hyperlink shown in the display space 1140). Alternately, the user could right-click on a hyperlink in the display space 1104 of the currently activated tab 1138 to open a desired web resource corresponding to the selected hyperlink in a new tab. When a new tab 1136 is opened in this manner by clicking on a hyperlink from a current tab 1138, the new tab 1136 could be inserted on a right side of the currently activated tab 1138 and not at the right most end of the tab block 1134. The sequence of tabs 1136 in the tab panel 1130 thus depends on the particular sequence of events which led to the opening of the corresponding web resources.
While it may be convenient and desirable to access multiple web resources simultaneously, a user attempting to obtain information from various web resources would also find the browsing experience to be confusing, annoying, or at the very least inconvenient, due to the proliferation of tabs 1136 and random organization thereof in the tab panel 1130. In addition, having multiple web pages open simultaneously also creates a burden on computing resources such as the processor, memory, communication bandwidth.